Boogie boarding ‘papi’ never looked back after ‘Freedom Flight’ to America

Leaving the Spanish-speaking church after four decades, Orlando Garcia enjoys ‘new outreach’

Jun 16, 2009
JONI B. HANNIGAN
Managing Editor

FAITH AND FAMILY Orlando Garcia with his family. Courtesy photo

Click on image for related coverage

MIAMI (FBW)—Adding a couple of surfboards to the family’s growing stockpile of playthings, Orlando Garcia didn’t think twice when his shaggy-haired sons decided to burst onto the surfing scene in the 1980’s.

What they might not have counted on was that “Papi” would go with them, dragging his boogie board along for their early morning jaunts to Sebastian and Fort Pierce, where they would carve the waves.

“I tried to be involved so I could keep an eye on them,” Garcia said, adding that instead of looking at his sons’ attraction to surfing as a negative, he and his wife Rosa took the opportunity to get out as a family and let their sons know they were interested in what the boys valued.

Garcia learned young the value of family and togetherness. He grew up just four blocks from the Baptist Seminary in Havana, Cuba, and was involved in church with his parents and grandparents.

At a country revival in 1965, when he was 9, Garcia accepted Christ after a sermon delivered by pastor Raul Freire, grandfather to David Lema, Jr., who is now associate director of the Theological Education and Distance Learning Division of the Florida Baptist Convention.

Two years later things changed radically when Garcia, his parents, and his sister boarded a “Freedom Flight” out of Cuba in 1967. “I was told if one of us stay, we all stay. If one of us go, we all go,” Garcia remembered.

Some 256,000 exiles boarded 45-minute flights from 1965-1973 in what is known as the largest and longest resettlement program of Cuban refugees ever sponsored by the U.S. government and supported by religious and volunteer organizations.

ORLANDO GARCIA

Garcia, who was 11 and knew no English, was introduced to a new nation and a new life, but still, he had his family. And had has never looked back, although he told Florida Baptist Witness, “It was radically different from Cuba.”

At 19, Garcia met and married Rosa, whom he met at church camp. As he matured, Garcia eventually learned English and a trade. He’s worked in the retail industry for 35 years and is a meat manager at Publix Super Markets. Rosa works at the South Florida Urban Center of the Florida Baptist Convention.

Not shy about ministry, the two launched themselves into church work—but always in Spanish. Even as they had their own two boys, Garcia taught Sunday School, led youth ministry, got involved with Royal Ambassadors and became a deacon.

“The whole family grew in the church,” Garcia said. Then something changed when the boys reached their mid-teens. “I noticed the boys were a little bit going in different directions. We didn’t have anything for them. So we went shopping around.”

Their “shopping” trip took the family to Flamingo Road Church in Fort Lauderdale where Garcia said for the first time in his life, he began to worship entirely in English. “It was different. It took a while,” he said, “it is still taking awhile sometimes, but it woke me up to new meanings and new outreach into another part of my life.”

Reaching “all people for Christ” is Flamingo‘s aim, Garcia said, and although Spanish is the language with which he is most familiar, “there’s a lot of people and a lot of different languages at Flamingo and the community down here is so much of a variety of cultures.”

Moving from a highly traditional church setting where the pastor wore a suit and tie, and Garcia sang in the choir, was difficult, he said, “but a blessing at the same time.”

“It opened my mind not only for Spanish people, but also for different countries and cultures,” Garcia said.

And the opportunities to serve young people continued. Garcia, now 53, recalled one young man, now a deacon and church treasurer, who has having a tough time.

“I told him, ‘You have good potential, you need to look at God for the reward for you. Right now you are going against everything you have been taught,” Garcia remembered.

The young man, as have dozens of others, “outgrew the moment” and eventually came around.

Garcia’s son, Orlando Jr., now 32, has worked with the youth at Flamingo for the past 12 years. He is married to Sandra and has two children, Issac and Izabella. Abel, 30, is married to Jennifer and attends Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Calif. He also served at Flamingo Road.

Being a “consistent” example and leader is the best parents and leaders can do to influence young people, Garcia said. “It’s having God in the middle and we respect each other,” he said referring to himself and his wife. “They see all of that.”

Email this Article Print this page